Hello,

I want to start investing in USD. But it seems extremely expensive to do so on EE. The exchange rate used by them to transfer is 1.7% worse than the spot rate when you transfer to AND from and they charge fees on top of this. In other words, you lose about 3.5% of your funds just to fees if you want to invest in USD.

How does this compare to investing on other platforms such as IB?

Thanks for any help!

I (25F) want to apply for a consolidation loan so I can sort out my finances that's been struggling due to sudden illness in the family and car repairs.

I literally want to apply for 16k (combined debt is 13k and I need a car battery and driving lessons) and I'm willing to pay R2.5k a month to pay it off (cause if I can get it sorted, I'll have more money to pay it)

But how according to my credit report, I have over 7k of "active" debt that free already paid off in the beginning of the year.

What do I do? Because it's messing me up BIG time.

Thank you!

FNB is clearly pushing for qualifying clients that are currently choosing to remain on Premier to make the leap to PC. The device purchase on 24 month budget facility clearly didn't work, so the next step is the new partnership with PnP where you get 20% in-store and 30% with ASAP.
I have a few questions for those in the know

- Looks like you need more points to get level 5 (12500 vs 11000), but are the earn rules the same?
- Is the R750k pa salary requirement gross, or what comes into the account?
- What's the difference between Fusion and a Current Account with overdraft?
- Do you still get a separate credit card without additional fees if on Fusion (not interested in the physical card as you need to use virtual anyway, but at least a 'credit card account' then)
- Are you switches, and what's your reasons for switching or staying on Premier?

Just asking if anyone knows

I would like to know if Momentum Capital founded in 2002 by Elon Mask and Johan Rupert is legit. Is it safe for me to register with them

Hey guys, I've been following the page for a while and know this question has been raised before. I think everyone is in a different situation though and this question has many different answers based off of that.

My situation:

Age: 31 M
Occupation: Marine Engineer (International, tax free)
Salary: 275 euro/working day. (183 days out, amounts to about +- 1M/year after getting PAYE tax back)
Maritial status: Single
Debt: 0
Investments: 850K Sygnia, 950K Ninety one (Mostly med-high risk, diversified as my financial advisor thinks is best for my situation)
Current monthly contributions: +- 50K, With a kicker once per year when I get tax money back from SARS.
Life goal: I am planning to retire by 40 (FIRE).

Currently living with parents and paying minimal rent. All-in-all month to month expenses only add up to R9500 for the passed year.

Questions/Opinions:

1. With my goal to retire in the next 9 years, I have made my own calculator on a spreadsheet for myself and can't find any reason why buying with mortgage makes any sense over renting a place or buying it cash. This will be my primary residence and not investment to rent out.

2. I could possibly have made some errors, but verified it mostly with online calculators - Perhaps I will share it later if possible so people can look into it, but for now I just seek opinions.

3. Either way, I feel like doing any of the three options - Buying cash, renting or buying with mortgage - Doesn't seem to get in the way of my retirement plan (I hope). How do you guys calculate how much is enough to retire safely?

4. From my calculations - Long term, as in 20 years or more, it is always better to keep renting and pump investments for compound interest. Short term, as in less than 10 years it seems that I could be better off buying a lower priced place cash (1-1.5M) over renting or mortgage and will only be kicking myself if the markets performed 15% or so. If the markets did not perform, I will be happy that I chose to buy.

5. I am currently looking to move out again next year sometime (Cape Town). I am not sure if I should buy or rent. In my current situation and to reach retirement as early as possible, what is my best move?

Any opinions, answers, advice or judgements that I still stay with my parents are welcome! xD I am not easily offended :)

Hi all

Has anyone applied for UIF recently? I know the website has been down for ages, but it seems to be back up again and I can make a profile etc.

For some reason, it keeps telling me that my banking details are invalid (even though they are not). Has someone else encountered this and knows what to do? I've tried two different accounts and still nothing.

I was retrenched in September and my new position only starts in January, so I could really use the cash to tie me over.

I'm a newly employed foreigner living in south africa for almost 3 months now i earn a little bit over 100k rands per month pre tax and am looking to finance a vehicle, how do I get approved at the best interest rates possible

Hi

Any recommendations for a stock broking account. Would like to cover local and international costs, tfsa, ra, cfds, structured products, etc.

Investment amount R200k+

Something more than EE.

Recommendations, Costs will be appreciated.

Tx

Greetings comrades,

I've had private disability/critical illness cover (and a small amount for income protection) for around 6-7 years with a current cost of R1100 per month but of course during that time I've been employed and there's compulsory cover through work provident. I plan to be employed until I'm 50-55 at which age I will, if all goes according to plan, retire. I am currently 35.

My father who is an old school financial advisor has told me to not to cancel my policies after I raised the fact that I'm over-insured on the basis that it becomes a lot more expensive and will result in exclusions if I develop an illness in the meantime and then want to take out cover when I'm retired.

There's also a possibility that I decide to take 6 months to a year off work to travel at some point in the next 10 years.

Am I wasting my money here? If I remember correctly I think the income protection makes up around R400 out of the R1100 so I would probably keep that as work income protection only covers 75% of my salary and my income protection makes up approximately the difference.

Can someone pls explain the concrete benefit of maxing out tax-free savings vs investing that money in other options like paying off a bond, investing in Easy Equities, etc? (I obviously understand what "tax-free" means, but how much of a benefit is that in monetary terms compared to other investment options?)

I've seen a few ads for Sygnia and it's saying everything I like. Ethical investments in tech and renewable energy are my jam. But frankly, finance is not my background.

I'm currently looking over their numbers, specifically for their Itrix range but it's a lot of reading. Does anyone have any experience with Sygnia? Obviously I'll continue to do my own research but as a young person who's tired of making bad financial decision some advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi there. I’m 23 and my mom recently passed away, leaving me with an inheritance of around R1.2m.

I’m already renting a flat, and I’m paying off a car from a family friend, but other than that I have no debt or anything to pay.

What would you do in this situation? Chuck it in a savings account? Invest? My sister suggested buying property with it.

Cheers.

Hey guys,

I am torn between banks. I want something more modern and feature packed in my banking apps and something with better interest rates and options for accounts (like Nedbank has those Mypockets accounts which can be useful for me to separate my spending money from budgeted money during the month) but Discovery is more fluid and on newer infrastructure.

I have already had issues applying for things in the Nedbank app. Discovery already has my medical aid and I think going more in on their ecosystem would be better for rewards (but I don't expect that to make up my monthly account fee).

So what's your opinions on the two banks and given that I already have a Nedbank account and Discovery medical, what would you pick to do your banking ?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking about building a budgeting app tailored specifically for South African users. A lot of popular budgeting apps are great but often feel designed with American or European markets in mind, especially when it comes to bank integration, currency, and financial literacy features.

I'm curious about a few things:

• Do you currently use any international budgeting apps, or have you tried any local ones? If so, what’s missing?
• How important is it to have auto-syncing with local banks? Or would manual entry be good enough?
• Would educational resources around financial planning (like savings goals, debt repayment, and emergency funds) be something you’d use?

I’d love to hear if there’s any real interest in something like this and any must-have features for a budgeting app in SA. Thanks in advance for the input!

Hi Everyone,

I want to know if this is normal or should I take action somehow.

Male , 30 credit score of 631 monthy income 30k nett.

no other loans but this car loan of R 385k

Interest rate offered 14.61%

Is this normal?

Edit: Forgot to mention the 30k income is the only one with a payslip, Budget is not the problem here.

I work for a foreign company and I have for just over a year. For tax purposes they pay my company and my company pays me, but I’m not self employed. For the first 6 months or so I had a loan account and drew from that and didn’t pay myself a salary. Now that the loan account is depleted I’m paying myself a salary.

I have this nagging worry that the banks are going to see me as self employed when I’m not. Wife is a government official and we can afford 2x the bond amount, comfortably. I don’t earn enough to consider Investec as an option. So far have submitted an application with SA home loans. I don’t want to use a bond originator so applying myself to all the banks.

Anyone else been through something similar that. An give advice?

I have an upcoming trip to a country whereby cards aren’t used widely. It would be easier to get USD (instead of using ZAR) for forex change as soon as I get there.

Which bank has the lowest fees on their Forex?

Someone said I must try Al Baraka because of their Shariah compliance means less costs

(I’m not Muslim and currently bank with Investec and Standard Bank)

Or Is going directly to Travelex at OR Tambo cheaper?

Or simply getting a Capitec card and withdrawing as soon as I get to the country?

Thanks

Hi guys 1 minute background:

im 30 years old Single guy with no child and have never lived away from home, i have always lived with parents ,even throughout university, for 30 years. so this year i decided to rent a place near work for R4K per month. im doing this because its nearly impossible for me to date while living at home and i have been single for 2 years now before this i had a gf from age 20 dated for close to 8 years before she left me. i would like to have a child soon i have always wanted a child even with my ex.

now onto the finance staff... i can save R10K if i live at home, im currently saving R7K while renting my place, i have only been here for roughly 3 months so not much had changed in dating as i have been focusing on buying furnitre. now if u wer mee would you go back home and save R10K or continue saving R7K ? btw im not saving for/towards anything.

living situation at home: its just me , my mom and grandma. so to them it makes no sense for me to have moved out.

So yesterday (Saturday, I think this detail is important to mention!) I made an easy zero account at FNB with the sole intention of moving my R20K from my Capitec account to my new FNB account because i felt it was nuts to walk around with a card that has your savings in it. Okay so around 7 PM I made a R10 immediate payment to test if the app is working… okay cool so it goes through so I’m confident to send a R10K again first to test, it also goes through. Just a minute later I send the remaining R10K, I felt my heart skip a beat guys Yhoo :( . Till now Sunday afternoon ( 16 : 00 ) the money hasn’t reflected so I’m like let me try and send yet another R10 to see what’s going to happen… to my surprise it went through now I’m really really worried because FNB customer care is closed until tomorrow.

Did they freeze my money and because it’s a weekend they can’t help ? Is Capitec the problem? (From Capitec it shows the money was sent )

Please help me guys… what do I do at this point ? I’ll be off tomorrow I can go to the bank, is that the solution?

And side question, I need to know my money is safe … which bank offer the best security and great services. Please not FNB :( …is discovery good? Please and many thanks in advance.

I want to go to Thailand in the next two years. Would it be better to save my R1500 per month in an account such as FNB's Global Account which has Dollars as an option to safe guard against ZAR fluctuation or do you have alternative ideas.

I've just returned to SA after living overseas for almost 20yrs. I have no credit score in SA and no SA credit cards although I do have an SA bank account with a debit card that I opened recently.

I've been unsuccessful in applying for SA credit cards as I have no credit score/rating.

What options (if any) are there to build up a credit score/rating/history from scratch that will lead to me being able to apply for a credit card?

Edit: I just found this online which looks promising: https://pokkitscore.com

Edit 2: I signed up for Pokkit Score. It takes 6mths to see a change in my credit score. It's currently "-1" (lol). I'll wait for my score to improve in 6mths and then look into applying for a credit card. I think it's pointless until I have a decent credit score.

So I know the question has been asked multiple multiple times, but I’m going to be asking again:

I 26(M) have a decent amount of money saved up in a savings account that yields an interest rate that I’m not ecstatic about. I’d like to start investing on Easy Equities and are not too sure exactly where I should be distributing the money I can afford to put into it.

I’m looking to invest into ETFs such as the Vanguard S&P500 or things similar. I’m willing to take a slightly more aggressive approach, but I’m looking to be investing long term (20 years give or take)

My emergency fund is sorted and in terms of TFSA, I know it would only apply in South Africa and I’m still on the fence of whether I’d be living here for the foreseeable future, so I’ve not contributed to that yet.

I’ve got around 20k additional to my savings to spend monthly for some extra insight. I’ve done plenty research and watched so many videos of even local guys (Money Marx for example) and it’s all so overwhelming with so many avenues to go down.

I hope I’ve given enough information. If not, shoot any questions my way and I’ll get them answered.

Thanks in advance for the help, guys.

I’ve lived overseas for 6 years now and have filed all of my tax returns to date. I’m in the process of ceasing my tax residency now so I don’t have to worry about this in the future.

I would consider buying an investment property in SA in the future and would like to know if it’s possible after ceasing my tax residency. Do I automatically become a tax resident again after creating an income in SA?

Asking on behalf of my grandmother who had her savings depleted due to a gambling addict family member.

A relative of my grandmother passed last year after which she started receiving payments from a living annuity (She opted for this option instead of a lump sum on the recommendation of the attorney who handled the estate)

She had an appointment with said attorney recently to ask if she can increase the payment/withdrawal rate from the living annuity but has been told she has to wait 5 years before this can be done. Is this correct? According to what I've read the amount can be increased once a year. Any advice will be appreciated.

Hello How are you?

I am 25 years of age

I need some advice regarding life insurance is it worth it or a waste of money i am currently paying +-R1000 a month for my spouse and I.

This policy covers us for 1million rand death 3 hundred thousand disability 15thousand rand income protector

I don't really find this as a need as the premiums are fixed and doesn't escalate yearly and in 10 years 1million rand won't be what it is worth today i currently have one child and I don't have much debt and 0 bonds

I also do not get anybcash back/rewards and was thinking about canceling it and rather opening up an investment with those same funds BUT I did want some other opinions before I do make a decision.

Does anyone know how to access Yieldmax ETFs in SA?

None of the brokers I know and have checked seem to have these instruments available.

Hello, how are you? I need some advice about life insurance.

I’m currently paying around R1000 a month for a policy that covers my spouse and me: R1 million for death, R300,000 for disability, R15,000 for income protection.

I’m not sure if this is necessary, especially since the premiums are fixed and don’t increase yearly, and there’s no cash back or rewards.

I’m considering canceling it, but I’d like to hear other opinions before making a decision.

In my opinion if I put the same funds in a savings it should be better?

Please let know below.